Republicans face pressure to consider Democrats’ health care demands as shutdown drags on

Sen. Susan Collins is reportedly shopping around a potential off-ramp to the government shutdown that has paralyzed Washington, but the Maine Republican is not ready to give in on the primary demand by her Democratic colleagues.

Collins has been circulating a “discussion draft” of a proposal that would include GOP pledges on a deal related to enhanced Obamacare tax credits, Punchbowl News reported.

But Collins is insisting that any extension of the Affordable Care Act subsidies should be negotiated after Congress passes a funding resolution that would allow the government to reopen.

Collins told reporters Monday that she has a draft of a proposal to get out of the shutdown, which she has shared “selectively.”

“There are a lot of informal discussions, but so far there’s no product, so we have the discussion draft,” she said, according to the news site NOTUS.

Her draft “suggests that there be a conversation on the ACA extension … after we reopen government,” she said, according to NOTUS.

“I do think we need an extension, but we also need some reforms, such as a cap on how much income you can earn, and that is totally feasible to do right after we finish keeping government open,” Collins said Monday, according to the Maine Morning Star.

“But we should not have issues that are very complicated that split the Senate attached to the continuing resolution, because all that’s going to do is prolong the shutdown.”

Most Democratic senators have refused to vote for any funding legislation unless it codifies an extension of the subsidies, which are due to expire at the end of the year.

Republicans like Collins, however, insist that conversations over the subsidies should occur after the government re-opens.

Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, both support extending the tax credits, as do Reps. Jen Kiggans, R-Va., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., Punchbowl reported.

Murkowski and Collins are no strangers to crossing partisan lines.

Both Republicans voted against some GOP pieces of legislation during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The two moderate Republicans have not yet shown an indication that they will vote with Democrats on the funding legislation, but their openness marks a potential shift.

In a separate sign of the growing pressure on Republicans to weigh Democrats’ health care demands, Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said that he may be souring on the Republican proposal to temporarily fund the government.

King has voted with Republicans five times on the government funding bill. But he said Monday that he is “contemplating” changing his vote unless the GOP is more “forthcoming dealing with the ACA problem.”

“We need some assurance that they will deal with this problem, and so far that hasn’t been forthcoming.”

Trump said Monday that he was negotiating with Democrats on health care that “could lead to very good things,” a claim that was quickly refuted by Democratic leadership.

Lawmakers in the Democratic caucus remain unlikely to accept commitments not backed up by legislation, underscoring the gridlock.

“[If] you reopen the government and we lose our leverage, and they say, well, ‘You know, We want this. We want that,'” Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., said Monday on CNN.

“No, there has to be an agreement right now. That’s what this whole shutdown is about, to protect the American people and our health care system from collapsing,” he said.